Engineers digging bore holes to investigate cause of Severn Valley Railway's landslip

The Severn Valley Railway was dealt a major blow earlier this month, when a large amount of earth gave way on a section of track on the northern end of the line, near Astbury, between Hampton Loade and Bridgnorth.

The issue has caused a number of headaches for the organisation - not least the potential cost of repairs and the time they will take to complete.

Speaking to the Shropshire Star last week the railway's head of infrastructure Chris Bond said it was likely to be costly and lengthy to fix.

He said: "It is quite obvious from the scale of the damage that this is not going to be a quick fix, and we are talking months I think, and probably in the terms of hundreds of thousands of pounds to repair." 

The railway has now shared pictures of some of the work taking place to inform its next steps in dealing with the problem.

Posting on social media it explained that bore holes were being dug to investigate the situation.

It said: "The first major step in the repair of the landslip is to drill 30 metre bore holes in various locations around the area to check the condition of the ground under the line.

"This will give our engineers a much better idea of how to proceed."

The railway has already received significant numbers of donations from the public and anyone wanting to support the organisation financially can do so at svr.co.uk/resilience